Highly near‐infrared photoluminescence from aza‐borondipyrromethene‐based conjugated polymers

Near‐infrared (NIR) emissive conjugated polymers were prepared by palladium‐catalyzed Sonogashira polymerization of diiodobenzene‐functionalized aza‐borondipyrromethene (Aza‐BODIPY) monomers, which were substituted at 3 and 5 or 1 and 7 positions on the Aza‐BODIPY core, with 1,4‐diethynyl‐2,5‐dihexadecyloxybenzene or 3,3′‐didodecyl‐2,2′‐diethynyl‐5,5′‐bithiophene. The structures of the polymers were confirmed by ¹H NMR, ¹³C NMR, ¹¹B NMR, Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectroscopies, and size exclusion chromatography (SEC). The optical properties were then characterized by UV–vis absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopies, and theoretical calculation using density‐functional theory (DFT) method. The polymers were fusible and soluble in common organic solvents including tetrahydrofuran (THF), o‐xylene, toluene, CHCl₃, and CH₂Cl₂, etc. The UV–vis absorption and PL spectra of the polymers shifted to long wavelength region in comparison with simple Aza‐BODIPY as the counterpart because of extended π‐conjugation of the polymers. The polymers efficiently emitted NIR light with narrow emission bands at 713～777 nm on excitation at each absorption maximum. Especially, the polymer attached 1,4‐diethynyl‐2,5‐dihexadecyloxybenzene to 3,5‐position on the core revealed intense quantum yields (?_F = 24%) in this NIR region (753 nm). © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2010     

Cyclic alkoxyamine‐initiator tethered by azide/alkyne‐“click”‐chemistry enabling ring‐expansion vinyl polymerization providing macrocyclic polymers

A cyclic initiator for the nitroxide‐mediated controlled radical polymerization (NMP) is a powerful tool for the preparation of macrocyclic polymers via a ring‐expansion vinyl polymerization mechanism. For this purpose, we prepared a Hawker‐type NMP‐initiator that includes an azide and a terminal alkyne as an acyclic precursor, which is subsequently tethered via an intramolecular azide/alkyne‐“click”‐reaction, producing the final cyclic NMP‐initiator. The polymerization reactions of styrene with cyclic initiator were demonstrated and the resultant polymers were characterized by the gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and the matrix‐assisted laser desorption/ionization time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MALDI‐TOF MS). These results prove that the ring‐expansion polymerization of styrene occurred together with the radical ring‐crossover reactions originating from the exchange of the inherent nitroxides generating macrocyclic polystyrenes with higher expanded rings. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 3402–3416, 2010     

Program schedule: Symposium on statistical approaches to macromolecular systems in honor of Robert Simha

Abstract

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been applied to observe single-chain polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) particles that were stored for six months at room temperature after being sprayed from very dilute solutions in good solvents, good/poor mixed solvents, and a theta solvent. Nearly monodisperse PMMA standards of molecular weights ranging from 7.90 × 10⁴ to 1.3 × 10⁶ were used to investigate the effect of molecular weight (MW) on the size of the single-chain PMMA particles. These single-chain particles showed close to spherical shapes. The morphology of single-chain PMMA particles of a given molecular weight has found to be identical in spite of different solvents used for solution spraying. Molecular weight dependence of the particle dimension was also found. The diameters of single-chain PMMA particles after correction of tip-geometry effect were compared with the values estimated from molecular weight and density.     

Cationic copolymerization behavior of epoxide and 3‐isochromanone

Cationic copolymerization of n‐butyl glycidyl ether (BGE) and 3‐isochromanone (ICM) was investigated using trifluoromethanesulfonic acid (TfOH) as an initiator at 100 °C. In the copolymerization, the reactive site of ICM with the propagating cation was completely different from that in its homopolymerization: in the former, the propagating cation reacted with the carbonyl oxygen of ICM, while in the latter, the propagating cation reacted with the aromatic ring of ICM. In spite of the potential of ICM to undergo the homopolymerization, in the present copolymerization, ICM was consumed smoothly only in the presence of epoxide. As a result, the copolymerization proceeded in a statistic manner to afford the corresponding copolymer bearing ICM‐derived ester linkages distributed in the main chain. Cationic copolymerization of bisphenol A‐diglycidyl ether and ICM was also performed to synthesize the corresponding networked polymer. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Polym. Sci., Part A: Polym. Chem. 2013 , 51, 4213–4220     

Mechanical properties and inhomogeneous nanostructures of dicyandiamide-cured epoxy resins

Dicyandiamide (DICY)-cured epoxy resins are important materials for structural adhesives and matrix resins for fiber reinforced prepregs. The objective of this study was to examine the mechanical and physical properties as well as the gel structures of the cured resins and discuss the relationships among them. Diglycidyl ether of bisphenol-A (DGEBA) oligomers were chosen as the common chemical structure of the epoxy resins. Four kinds of resin mixtures were formulated using the seven types of DGEBA oligomers having different molecular weight distributions. Three resin formulations having bimodal-type molecular weight distributions were designed to have almost identical rubbery plateau values of the storage modulus in dynamic mechanical analyses after curing, means that they had almost equivalent average crosslink density and basic chemical structure. However, the toughness, ductility, and environmental (heat and solvent) resistance of these three formulations were different. Atomic force microscopy revealed the existence of inhomogeneous nanoscale gel structures in these cured resins. The morphological differences in the gel structures in terms of their size, the connectivity, and the relative magnitude of the heterogeneity would cause the difference in several properties of the DICY-cured epoxy resins. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part B: Polym Phys 45: 1425–1434, 2007     

Modeling the drainage and groundwater table above the collecting pipe through 2D groundwater models

In order to understand the effects of the landfill operation on groundwater flow behavior, 2D horizontal groundwater simulation model was carried out. The model saved the memory of computer and time consumption comparing with 3D groundwater flow model. However, the most difficulty is the assignment of collecting pipe boundary in the study site. Therefore, 2D vertical model was applied to calculate the change of groundwater table above the collecting pipe. This paper paid attention to examine the validation of the assignment of the collecting pipe boundary by applying the results of 2D vertical model. 2D horizontal model was coupled with the recharge model to solve the partial differential equation of groundwater flow. Finite difference method and iterative successive over relaxation were applied. The drainage volume of leachate collection was summed up in the whole landfill site and compared with the average volume of treated waste water. The study demonstrated that the results of 2D vertical model validated and can be applied to 2D horizontal groundwater flow simulation.     

Berger-Shaw's theorem forp-hyponormal operators

For an-multicyclicp-hyponormal operatorT, we shall show that |T|^2p –|T ^*|^2p belongs to the Schatten and that tr Area ((T)).     

Residues of $q$-Hypergeometric Integrals and Characters of Affine Lie Algebras

We study certain subspaces of solutions to the sl₂ rational qKZ equation at level zero. Each subspace is specified by the vanishing of the residue at a certain divisor which stems from models in two dimensional integrable field theories. We determine the character of the subspace which is parametrized by the number of variables and the sl₂ weight of the solutions. The sum of all characters with a fixed weight gives rise to the branching functions of the irreducible representations of sl₂ in the level one integrable highest weight representations of . It is written in the fermionic form.